Court Bars Extradition of 3 Irish Nationalists

A federal appeals court in San Francisco on Friday blocked the extradition of three Irish nationalists--two of them convicted murderers--wanted by Britain on allegations of terrorism.

The 2-1 decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals does not mean that Kevin Artt, Terence Kirby and Pol Brennan ultimately will be able to remain in the U.S. But they will be entitled to further hearings, and their attorneys expressed confidence that they will succeed in avoiding extradition.

The case of the three fugitives, who broke out of Maze prison near Belfast 15 years ago and eventually settled in California, has been a cause celebre in the Bay Area for several years. One of Sinn Fein’s lead negotiators in the Northern Ireland peace negotiations has urged the United States to free the three men from a federal prison in Alameda County. Sinn Fein is the political arm of the separatist Irish Republican Army.

The three, all Catholics, have vigorously maintained that they would face persecution and possibly death at the hands of hostile prison authorities or inmates if they were returned to Northern Ireland.

Artt, 38, was convicted of murdering an off-duty British warden. Kirby, 41, was found guilty of murdering an Ulster gas station attendant. Brennan, 44, was convicted of transporting a bomb and planning to set it off in Dublin. Artt was arrested in San Diego in 1992, Brennan in Berkeley in 1993 and Kirby in Concord in 1994.

The men’s case is based on a 1986 treaty between the U.S. and Britain that prohibits extradition of any person who faces persecution because of religious or political beliefs.

In August 1997, U.S. District Judge Charles Legge in San Francisco rebuffed the men’s attempts to stave off extradition. Legge said they had been convicted based on “substantial evidence,” not on “trumped-up charges.” At one point during the hearing, Artt’s attorney, James Brosnahan, urged Legge to recuse himself, after the judge refused to provide the lawyer with a British intelligence file on his client that the U.S. government gave to Legge confidentially.

Both Artt and Kirby claimed that their convictions were based on coerced confessions and that they would not have been found guilty but for anti-Catholic and anti-Irish Republican bias in Northern Ireland’s judicial system.

On Friday, appellate Judges Dorothy W. Nelson and Betty B. Fletcher said Legge had misapplied the relevant laws. Judge Alfred W. Goodwin dissented, saying that Legge had correctly applied the law in Brennan’s case and that the majority had gone beyond the court’s power to review extraditions.

However, the majority ordered Legge to conduct a full evidentiary hearing on bias against Catholics in Northern Ireland’s courts, including the methods of interrogation used in securing Artt’s and Kirby’s convictions.

The majority said evidence showed that conditions at Maze were harsh, that some of the men’s former guards were still employed there and that the men were likely to be subject to attacks by opposition paramilitary groups colluding with Northern Ireland’s police force.

The majority also said Brennan was entitled to raise the “political offense” exception to extradition, something Legge ruled he could not do.

Lawyers for the men were jubilant about the decision.

Brosnahan expressed hope that Britain would drop the extradition request. He noted that in recent weeks, pursuant to the April peace agreement, Britain has begun releasing hundreds of political prisoners convicted of terrorism in Northern Ireland. Peter Reed, a spokesman at the British Embassy in Washington, said Friday’s ruling would be reviewed carefully. He indicated, however, that it was unlikely that the extradition request would be withdrawn any time soon.

“The extradition request follows the law,” Reed said. He also said that the peace agreement did not call for a general amnesty and that prisoners were being released on a case-by-case basis. Reed said that under the agreement “any paramilitary prisoner” from the Irish Republican Army or two Protestant groups not released within two years would be freed then.

A U.S. Justice Department attorney who argued for the extraditions declined to comment.